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Otto Neals
Otto Neals (born December 11, 1931)[1] is an American painter and sculptor. Throughout his career, Neals worked as an illustrator at the Brooklyn Post Office while pursuing independent art projects in his spare time.[2] He currently resides in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.[3] Early life and educationBorn in South Carolina, Neals moved to New York at the age of four and displayed a passion for painting from a young age. Neals studied commercial art at George Westinghouse Vocational High School, and briefly attended the Brooklyn Museum Art School.[4] Neals studied under notable artists such as Isaac Soyer, Krishna Reddy, Mohammed Khalil, Roberto DeLomanica, and Vivian Schuyler Key.[5] CareerNeals has been a member of the Weusi Artist Collective since the 1960s.[6] Neals has been commissioned to execute several public works, including ten bronze plaques for the Harlem Walk of Fame, a 20-foot mural in Kings County Hospital, a bronze of Percy Sutton at the City University of New York, and a bronze monument inspired by the children's book Peter's Chair as centerpiece of an Imagination Playground in Prospect Park.[2][4] His work is exhibited in the Smithsonian Institution, Howard University, and the Columbia Museum of Art.[7] He features in the private collections of John Lewis, Harry Belafonte, and Oprah Winfrey,[8] and was the subject of an exhibition in the gallery inside the Soldiers' and Sailors' Arch at Grand Army Plaza.[2] In June 2015, the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation held a 50-year retrospective of his sculptures.[9] Neals is a founding artist of the Fulton Art Fair, the oldest Black visual arts event in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.[10] Neals has been the recipient of the New York City Art Commission's Award for Excellence in Design.[11] References
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